Praise and Prayer 2025 Newsletter 2

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. – Psalm 9:1

As we look back we see the faithfulness of our Lord. He continues to move mightily in the colonies and areas where our Mennonite people have settled. While we hear of struggles and oppression, we also hear from many who are seeing the light of the Gospel and coming to the decision to follow Christ. We praise the Lord for the breakthroughs and continue to pray for those still searching. We are so grateful to all of you for your prayer and financial support. This is a partnership with the wider community of faith and we could never accomplish anything on our own. We pray God’s richest blessings on you all.

Looking Back

The months of April, May and June have been full and rewarding, with several trips, lots of local events, as well as office and studio projects.

April

We had our final Sinjstund for the winter season. Diedrich and Nettie travelled to La Crete, Alberta to participate in their local Plautdietsch radio (Läwen met Hopninj) anniversary celebration, and fundraiser. It was great to share the stage with local musicians as well as David Toews from Paraguay. The La Crete area is very supportive of our ministry so it was great to go and spend time with supporters and churches as well as work with Andrew and Deanna for a weekend.

We are also extremely pleased to announce that one of our major projects, several years in the making is finally finished and has been selling like hotcakes! The notated version of our songbook is finished, printed and on the shelves for sale!

May

We had our spring fundraiser in the Winkler Sommerfeld Church. We are very grateful for the support from the Winkler community. It takes so many hands and willing servants to put together an event like that, and we have some of the best volunteers we could ever ask for. With God’s blessing it turned out amazingly well.

We travelled to Bolivia, together with Andrew and Deanna and their children. It was the first time with the grandkids on such long foreign trip, but they did so well. Our purpose this time was twofold.

1) to attend the Plautdietsch Media Konferenz which was encouraging, uplifting, as well as challenging. We always come away inspired by the new things happening in the Low German world, but we also always feel challenged to continue working hard to produce more resources. It seems that as more resources
become available, the more the people want!

2) to connect with as many churches, colonies, and Mennonite communities as possible. We had the opportunity to sing and preach in quite a few areas, including some we had not been to for 12 years. As always the people made us feel warmly welcomed and treated us like royalty! It was encouraging to hear stories of how the Lord has worked in the lives of many individuals through our songs, stories, sermons or simple conversations. Many times we wonder if our work is really having an impact. But so many times, we hear stories of something we said or sang years ago, or a devotional they have read has touched their lives and started them on the journey to finding the peace of Christ in their lives, and we are encouraged to keep on keeping on.

June

We started off June running sound and singing at various outdoor festivals in Manitoba. We love connecting with our local friends and supporters.

Local store (Sunny Day Foods) offered us some space in their store to display and sell our products, so in early June we headed over there to set it all up. Our hope is that we can be a blessing to the Low German people of our community in that way. Thank you to Sunny Day for this opportunity.

Mid June, we headed to Bow Island, Alberta, together with Jason, to run sound as well as sing at their gospel music festival, which is a very effective outreach to the local population. We have missed only one of their festivals over the years, and were so happy to be back in this warm, loving community! It was also wonderful to share the stage with Andrew and Deanna again!

Looking Ahead

We have quite a few bookings coming up in the next few months, several of which are out of province. We also have a lot of book and recording projects we are hoping to finish. Besides everything mentioned and described above; Diedrich, Nettie and Mark are still heavily involved in the Low German Church (Läwenswuat Christliche Jesalschoft) in Gnadenthal, MB.

As always, we are honoured, blessed and grateful to be able to do this work. As the economy grows more difficult for nearly everyone, it also gets more difficult to raise the finances needed. So your earnest prayers in that regard would be very much appreciated. We are eternally grateful for the level of support we do have, but we realize that we need to find a way to increase it as expenses increase.

As usual, it’s been a busy few months of trying to balance office work with public events, meetings, and practises! One thing that has come my way, and has become part of my regular workload is to put together a Low German database of songs that have the music soundtrack as well as lyrics for churches to use for their worship services. This is a huge job and will probably keep me busy for a while, along with all the picture editing, performances and other ministry responsibilities. But I can see it’s potential to be a real blessing in the churches who always seem to struggle to find musicians. The coming months look very full both from a ministry and personal perspective and I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do in and through us as D’Friesens. Thank you so much for your support and prayers. May God bless the rest of your summer!

These past couple months have been very busy for me, but not in the same way it has been for the rest of the team. Back in May, my husband and I hosted a fundraiser for a health trip to Spain to see a surgeon who specializes in my conditions. Thanks to friends, family, our church and the community we were able to raise the full amount to cover the costs for medical testing, our trip and stay in Spain. We left for our trip in June, and came back finally having more answers about my conditions. The journey ahead is going to be long, so continued prayer for wisdom and open doors is appreciated. While most of my time and energy is spent at appointments, getting treatments and battling the decline that comes with my conditions, I do still find space for my regular admin tasks. I helped with providing baking and the decor for the fundraiser back in May, I also have been working on lyric videos to upload to Youtube of our songs for use in Low German spaces. My role is also more behind the scenes, I am the one keeping track of materials that were purchased after events, updating our inventory, and making monthly statements of ministry purchases. As time and energy allows, I look forward to creating space for my admin tasks and being more available to our team for future projects.

One of the major events of this quarter was the trip to southern Alberta in June. This in itself was a big trip, with plenty of rehearsing and practice going on before the trip even began. What a great way to kick off the summer! Apart from that, I have been working hard in the studio on the new album; finishing up some songwriting and different parts. A friend has graciously agreed to play the piano for this project, and we have recorded the first three songs already! Those three songs are half done in the recording process, with several more well underway. I’m incredibly excited with how this project is coming together. Thanks for your support and prayers, God bless./

Praise God For:

– The way He is working in the heart of Low German people all around the world.

– Many wonderful dedicated missionaries who are our partners in reaching out to them with the Gospel of Jesus.

– The encouragement we receive from our partners, friends and family.

Pray With Us For:

– Continued strength, wisdom, and enthusiasm in a very busy and sometimes stressful ministry.

– Health and healing for those of our team dealing with long-term health challenges.

– Increased financial support in a world where costs are rising for everyone.